As the commonwealth’s second youngest corrections secretary in history, John E. Wetzel, at 42, brings an unassuming, no-nonsense attitude to his greatest challenge to date: revamping the state’s prison system. Elected by former state attorney general Gov. Tom Corbett (R), Wetzel candidly states that “population is one of our biggest challenges,” and concedes the number of inmates was rising but “we are certainly expecting to reverse that trend,” noting it’s been flat the last year. One projection called for its numbers to reach 58,000 by 2014 and Wetzel said he is working hard to address that.

When Erford Harrison joined Habersham Metal Products in 1956, building a detention facility meant years of heavy lifting, and piecemeal construction, finally crosshatched and finished with the clang of those iconic iron bars.

Jerry Elmblad’s office at the Michigan Department of Corrections in Lansing is littered with papers and publications on cutting-edge technologies. With 25 years in the department, Elmblad has become one of the correctional industry’s foremost experts on energy use reduction.

For Darrell Stelling, DLR Group’s criminal justice market leader for California, planning correctional facilities was the logical next step in the early development of his career. The efficiencies that are required for 24/7 operations at prisons and jails correspond well with his thought process for facility design.